ECONOMY STUDIOExplainers
The stories behind the numbers. Every explainer is built on official data and company filings, with every source listed.
Car Dealers Make Their Money After You Pick the Car
On a new car, a big dealer group keeps only a few dollars of every $100 you pay. Most of its gross profit comes from the service bays and the finance office at the back. Here is how the dealership model works, from two public dealer groups' filings, and why the loan is now part of the business.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletNasdaq Lost $2 Trillion. Now Big Tech Is Selling You Shares.
Four of the biggest AI builders spent more on data centers last quarter than their businesses earned in cash, and the gap is now being raised from the market through share sales and bonds. That market includes the index fund in a retirement account. Here is the arithmetic, from the companies' own filings.
How Companies Really Make MoneyApple: The iPhone Is the Door. The Services Are the Toll.
Services are about a quarter of what Apple sells but more than two fifths of what it earns after the cost of its products. Here is how the iPhone works as the door and the services as the toll, from Apple's own filings, and why courts and regulators are now looking at those tolls.
How Companies Really Make MoneyMcDonald's Makes Its Billions on Rent, Not Burgers
The biggest line in McDonald's accounts is not burgers or royalties. It is the rent franchisees pay for the land and buildings under their restaurants. Here is how the landlord model works, from the company's own filings, and why this autumn the landlord is cutting rent and arguing with its tenants over prices.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletMeta Fell 7%. Your Mortgage Rate Fell Too. Here's the Link.
Meta beat Wall Street's forecasts and still lost a big slice of its value in a day, because its AI building spree took more cash than its business made. The money that left AI stocks ran into Treasury bonds, and the mortgage rate, which follows them, posted its first weekly fall since August.
How Companies Really Make MoneyThe Entire History of Coca-Cola: From a Nickel Soda to a Company That Sells Syrup
A pharmacy soda fountain in Atlanta in 1886, a bottling deal sold for a dollar, a price that did not move for decades, and a company that mostly does not bottle its own drink. How Coca-Cola's business model was built, and what it looks like in its latest numbers.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletA 7% Mortgage Costs Nearly Triple the Interest of a 3% One
The same house can cost hundreds of dollars more a month at today's rate than at the rate a neighbor locked in years ago. The reason is how a mortgage charges interest: the first years are almost all interest. Here are the official numbers, and how unusual 3% really was.
How Companies Really Make MoneyThe Hotel Chain Doesn't Own the Hotel. It Still Gets Paid.
Marriott owns or leases less than one percent of its hotels and still collected billions in fees last year. Following one night's bill through the brand, the owner and the credit card company shows who gets paid when a room sells, and who pays when it doesn't.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletAI Stocks Lost More Than $1 Trillion in a Week. Nvidia Funds Its Own Buyers.
Demand for AI is real. But Nvidia's own filings, a Bank for International Settlements study and OpenAI's reported numbers show how much of the money is going round in a circle, and why higher interest rates hit that loop first.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletAmerica Stopped Making the Penny. It Lost Money on Every One.
The Mint struck its last penny in November 2025 because each coin cost more than it was worth. Following the money from the Mint to the bank vault to the Federal Reserve shows what a dollar is really made of.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletHormuz Reopened. Why Is Gas Still Above $4?
Crude oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz again, but gasoline and diesel prices have not followed. Using EIA, BLS and tanker-tracking data, we follow a gallon from the strait to the refinery to the pump.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletHow Social Security Works, and Why Your Raise Feels Smaller
Where Social Security's money comes from, what the 2032 and 2034 dates really mean, how your benefit and your yearly raise are set, and why part of the raise is gone before it reaches the bank. From the 2026 Trustees Report, SSA and Medicare.
How Companies Really Make MoneyTrader Joe's Has No Sales, No Ads, No Delivery. It Still Wins.
A normal supermarket carries tens of thousands of items and runs sales, coupons, apps and delivery. Trader Joe's does none of it. Using industry data, Kroger's accounts and Trader Joe's own words, we follow $100 through both models.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletYou Paid the Tariffs. Companies Are Getting the Refunds.
The Supreme Court threw out most of the 2025 tariffs, and the money is flowing back. Using court filings, Treasury data and studies from the New York Fed, the Kiel Institute and Yale, we follow the tariff money from the border to the shelf and back.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletHow Inflation Actually Works (And Who Secretly Wins)
$100 today buys what about $51.41 bought in 2000. Where did the rest go? We follow the bill through the economy.
How Companies Really Make MoneyThe Rise and Fall of Blockbuster
In 2004 Blockbuster had 9,094 stores and $6.05 billion in revenue. Six years later it was bankrupt. Using its own SEC filings, we follow the money.
How Companies Really Make MoneyHow Credit Card Companies Make Money From You
So many people get cash back for free. So who really pays? We follow $100 through the card system, using CFPB, Federal Reserve and Visa data.
Follow the Money: The Economy & Your WalletWhy Borrowing Is Suddenly So Expensive
Mortgage rates just hit 7.40%, and the Fed raised rates even as hiring almost stalled. We follow $100,000 of borrowed money through the system.
How Companies Really Make MoneyHow Costco Makes Money (It's Not the Groceries)
Costco barely profits from what it sells. Using its fiscal 2025 annual report, we follow $100 through a warehouse to find the real product: your membership card.